Stalinites Smear Griffith to Discredit Anti-Dictator Films
Stern, Seymour
Stalinites Smear Griffith to Discredit Anti-Dictator Films By SEYMOUR STERN EVER since the appearance, in November, 1939, of Lewis Jacobs' Stalinized "history," "The Rise of the American Film"...
...Ingram's "Scara-mouche" (American), Grüne's "Waterloo" (German), and Gance's "Napoleon" (French), are three examples of its far-reaching influence...
...A grim note of irony was struck in Paterson, N. J., when the Klan began recruiting children for its hooded ranks...
...E. L. Oliver, former field director of Labor's Non-Partisan League, this week was elected State Executive Director of the American Labor Party...
...Hillman...
...No less typical was the curator of the Library, Miss Iris Barry's, wholesale endorsement of that compendium of error, misinformation, and bewildering contradiction, "The Rise of the American Film," and her corresponding failure to utter a word of protest against Jacobs' distortions and misrepresentations of Griffith...
...Stern is new writing a book based en the life and wark of O. W. Griffith...
...Since then I have needed no «MP nesia...
...I It should be noted that while Hillman and the President favored a compulsory training plan, at no time did theyfavor universal military training...
...The primaries and the state convention are in September...
...There are dozens of Russian refugee scholars and scientist« in America alone: the names of Prof...
...The theme of these captions is strikingly illustrated in the scenes depicting the growth of the terror and the rise of street-bolshevism...
...CAA to Turn Out 45,000 Pilots Yearly By GEORGE SHORT Special to The New Leader WASHINGTON, D. C.—Public reaction against compulsory military training, the nomination by the Republican party of its most potential vote-getter, and the administration's fear of handing the G.O J. its most effective campaign material, has forced President Roosevelt and Sidney Hillman to abandon—temporarily—the idea of compulsory vocational training of...
...The historical interpretation was not Griffith's, but Cariyle's and Dickens.' Nevertheless, Griffith, according to Friday, "misunderstood the French Revolution" and "Orphans of the Storm" is "not worth seeing today...
...The original idea was to train young men in the vital re-armament, industries so as to assure sufficient trained workers' for large-scale expansion...
...The Wisconsin Farmer-Labor Political Federation had been a maneuver instituted to a large degree by the S.P...
...The United States today produces only 500 warplanes a month, or 6,000 a year...
...The Moseow lover was charged with "cruelty and causing mental anguish and humiliation...
...Alex Rose, who served as State Executive Secretary for more than three years, was released at his own request...
...Orphans of the Storm" was the first film in which, modern (i...
...The honeymoon ended in a sensational divorce case thrashed out before the courts of world public opinion...
...By all mjeans, read it...
...A further step in their de-teriftination is the assumption of complete control of "The Progressive" which had been previously run with the Madison Capitol Times...
...Their attempt to dismiss the picture as a creative work is nullified by the fact that "Hearts of the World" was of marked influence in the American cinema...
...Lenin for Your Stomach 'ï'liL cream of the jest, however, comes in Professor Hald«*^ ^ article on certain gastric diseases which as he says—ad rightly, no doubt—are caused by worry and anxiety...
...this year his peace resolution made no mention of nazism, fascism or communism, omitted- any references to dictatorships, and undertook to place v^ll blame for tiie present worldipvar on the doorsteps of the "international bankers...
...However, in the absence of regular constitutional means for determining, the national policy of the League, he asserted Lewis' pro-nunciamentos have meant the League's policy...
...It was a warmly felt portrayal of the love of the English for their country, a tribute to the civilizing influence of English culture, and a passionate indictment of Germany's attempt to destroy this during the first World War...
...American Labor Party Names E.L...
...Union and in Scandinavia tfc , better adentiBe^ aaws ftan in «ntaHu" The autiw it ar wefl*fcnown- Britisher, and, again, he Idfey that "ft science is to advance in this count» (in'England), as H should, we need more democracy in the laboratories and more democratic control .of expenditure on rewardi...
...What does it all mean...
...Although neither of thé LaFollette brothers are members of the Federation, endorse-m e n t was made possible by the amending of the constitution previously limiting endorsement to Federation memBob LoFoH.»e-T-theBrain_ erd conclave, of the Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party, a left-wing group led by former Governor Elmer Benson was routed on the convention floor on the dominant peace question...
...Oliver's background consists of more than twenty-two years of trade-union activity...
...That tradition, the oldest and most essentially American in the history of motion pictures, stems from, and centers in, the life and work of David Wark Griffith...
...The Hillman proposal would have taken boys from 18 to 20...
...the technical side, both Jacobs' and Friday's ^^ virtually identical falsehoods hold even less water...
...Is it aiding and abetting a propaganda campaign to stymie public demand for a revival of Griffith's films on democracy...
...branches, and many others of the front organisations...
...It is no secret that Benson has long been a Stalinite "captive...
...What are the "other writers" as good for the stomuk #» Lenin himself ? Not Trotsky, by chance ? And how should W* apply the sacred pages, externally or internally ? Let not the reader think for a moment that this coluBin ij trying to persuade him not to read "Science in Everyday life...
...In the same book (page 277) we are further -solemnly informed that •ffloth in the Soviet...
...in War Training Discredit Anti-Dictator Films By SEYMOUR STSRN Mr...
...Griffith would be well advised to remove his films and put the show on elsewhere under his own auspices...
...Their tl&loid newspaper plays up other Communist fronts and front publications, devoting splash articles extolling "Friday...
...Professor Haldane has every gift of an eminent scientist, Mt1 gaging teacher and popularizer and limpid prose writer- Th® hljP ought to be required reading for some Of our younger writ...
...But the (London) Daily Worker may effect a peW nent cure...
...The word totalitarian had not been coined in 1922, but Griffith's arguments added up to the same thing, and today, eighteen years afterwards, the text of his titles has an almost prophetic overtone...
...Neither Friday nor Jacobs' "history" mentions this important fact...
...These totals are for warplanes only and don't include light and heavy commercial ships which can (be used for training...
...The majority report, passed 301 to 180 opposed America's entry into war, but approved in substance the preparedness program of President Roosevelt not only as it relates to military defenses against armed invasion, but to defenses against the internal challenges to' democracy...
...years KKK Speeds Activity in Jersey, Wash., Colorado Special to The New Leader WASHINGTON, D. C. — Ku Klux Klan activity, intensifying its anti-Catholicism, broke out sporadically in Seattle, Denver and Paterson, N. J., this week...
...And—Marx and Lenin know—we need all the lsa|M we can scrape together these grim and mirthless days...
...Most of theft-clubrooms have become headquarters for International iAber Defense chapters, Workers Alliance locals, I.W.O...
...The Socialist Party, as a political force in Wisconsin is through...
...Except for an obscure and shabby production of Dicken's "A Tale of Two Cities" made in 1915, "Orphans of the Storm" was the first film basgd on the French Revolution...
...In his letter of resignation he pointed out that the overwhelming majority of trade unionists in Labor's NonPartisan League are for the New Deal, but it is only a tiny minority which is against Roosevelt...
...Not So Hot F this column wished to take J. B. S. Haldane literally, itj point out *hat last winter the newspaper correspond Russia reported a bitter lack of coal and kindling wood in I and Leningrad so that even in the hospitals filled With y soldiers they were unable to "regulate the temperature their needs...
...Is the ground being prepared for eliminating these pictures from the Griffith exhibit next Fall, or for deleting such scenes and subtitles as might offend the political sensibilities of Stalin's local agents...
...Thus, he gives out that "Orphans of the Storm" was "the work of a man who was no longer influencing the movies but being influenced by them" (ibid., p. 392...
...and ' "Wings," by from eight to ten years...
...AFTER a routine Stalinist condemnation of h "The Birth of a Nation," Friday denounces Griffith for making what it calls "jingo pictures" and "atrocity films...
...WOR must the reader think that "Science in Everyday Life" h an ineffective and silly piece of writing...
...NEEDLESS to say, all this has provoked the wrath of contemporary Stalinist critics...
...This was a twelve-reel costume spectacle of the French Revolution...
...97 and 393), and none in Friday's follow-up...
...You are stunned for a moment, aren't you 1 But the author* hastens to explain: "I don't mean political propaganda, hut.Jjj^ logical propaganda, propaganda which disgusts me as a bisiegriet...
...Griffith's collected works, above all those three masterpieces in which he glorified liberal democracy and the American way of life, were never more timely, more contemporary in social significance, than at the present historic tour...
...If any bill was designed to cripple sentiment for the idea it expressed, Burke's was it, especially m its provision for a remuneration of $6 a month...
...As such, it was the direct forerunner, and in more than one sense the inspiration, of further efforts exploiting the same subject...
...Ipatiev and Rostovtzeff tie world famous...
...machinery...
...A fund of $17,381,340 has been allocated to the project, which will be directed by Owen D. Young and Floyd W. Reeves, in addition to Mr...
...Adequate natural defense was approved...
...In Denver, Colo., the Klan has purchased seven acres and a clubhouse on Ruby Hill, where weekly several-hundred tin cans, flooded with oil, are burned in the form of k cross...
...The first outbreak of Klan terrorism in Seattle for many years came when seven hooded vigilantes trooped into the house of Hiram Thorn, 69-year-old member of the Old Age Pension Union, and warned him to discontinue "radical activity...
...1 All this does not perturb Professor Haldane...
...The latest move in the organized cultural war being waged against it was the publication, in the May 17 issue of the Comnjunist-line magazine, "Friday," of an anonymously written article entitled "Memo on D. W. Griffith...
...The line of this misleading document parallels that of "The Rise of the American Film...
...Machinery for this will be located—as during the past year—in 550 centers distributed „through every state, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico...
...But, alas, "Knowledge of this kind is danger ous to capitalism," and, hence, true soieiwi ft fostered in the democratic Soviet Union mui twarted in capitalist England...
...This columnist has had more laughs ft*¥ "Science in Everyday Life" than he can remember from any tap in months...
...He has worked for the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers, taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at Brookwood Labor College...
...Training of industry and manpower began taking shape in other fields...
...On the question of foreign affairs both conventions represent a switch away from the attitude of "let's close our eyes and don't give a hoolJ as to what goes on over there...
...1,600,900 youths between the ages of 18-and 20...
...Here again, he affirmed his faith in liberal democracy and in the American way of life...
...rid the state of Catholics, JewB and Negroes...
...But at the same time, he also attacked Communism and the dictatorship of the proletariat, and he showed how the true fight for freedom is often sabotaged by political nihilists who mislead the democratic movement in order to set themselves up as a new ruling class...
...WÏFA rolls will supply 50,000 of those to fee trained, the remainder will be recruited by (Federal and State employment " services...
...All ip well with political proj...
...to make sure the LaFollettes wouldn't have a free hand...
...This is of special significance inasmuch as for some time past, the Film Library has contemplated holding a one-man show of Griflitii's collected works...
...It also condemned the foreign dictatorships for their bloody crimes...
...Like the latter, it was written with the cooperation of the Museum of Modern Art Film Library...
...He returns to his post as secretary-treasurer of " the Millinery Workers Joint Board, from which he had a leave of absence...
...What are the facts ? "The Great Love," one of Griffith's minor films, but also one of his moat charming, was not by the widest stretch of imagination propaganda for the British Empire...
...The A.L.L...
...This, it appears, is what Stalinist critics have in mind when they write that "Hearts of the World" was "rabidly militaristic," that it "revealed little comprehension Of the great issues at stake," and that Griffith had only "superficial understanding of the war" (Jacobs, ibid., p. 386...
...Bitter Medicine for Gorki THE most dreadfjji case of all was probably the confession Mdp * before the Supfeme Court of Soviet Russia by two famons Kremlin physicians that, on Yagoda's express orders, they had poisoned Maxim Gorky...
...But Friday's, like Jacobs', most destructive criticism is reserved for Griffith's great Atlantic masterpiece, "Orphans of the Storm" (1922...
...Rose to devote his time to the party...
...While the regular party was victorious in the April 2nd primaries, the same fight must be renewed...
...Let us quote: "I had it for 15 years until I read 1Mb and other writers, who showed me what was wrong with society and how to cure it...
...Do you get that, dear reader...
...All wore juvenile replicas of their elder'» regalias...
...Five small boys in knickers and golf socks were "baptized" into the order during a 24-hour celebration at the Tri-County Club in Wayne Township...
...But he also informs u» th "In capitalist countries we are like houseless savages exposed 4 the sun and frost The citizens of the Soviet Union art civilized men in houses where they can regulate the tempel) to suit their needs...
...Stalinist contempt of this film is obviously inspired by its political ideology and-social content...
...Sjidneiy Hillman has now desvised voluntary project to train 150,000" young men in trades which CQuld be transformed into wartime production overnight...
...They run "an£-war" demonstrations featuring Vito Marcantonio, and utilizing the American Labor Party name...
...Griffith assailed the French aristocracy, depicting in all its horrorXthe brutality and cynicism of a ruling class on the way «at, and he glorified, as no other director treating this subject has ever done, the birth of modern liberal democracy in the Old World...
...From Lewis Jacobs and the propaganda-commissars of the Film Library, down to the secret author of the "Friday" article, the entire clique representing imported totalitarian thought in the field of American film criticism, has taken every opportunity to smear this masterpiece and to discourage popular demand for its revival...
...The author, incidentally, is a Professor of Bioiogy fe the University of London...
...It cites as examples "Hearts of the World" and "The Great Love," released in 1918, "The Jast," says Friday, "was such ertrava gant praise of the British Empire that it was never even shown in the U. S. Griffith was already oat oif step with the world...
...Moreover, Friday's statements are fraudulent in light oi the fact that "The Great Love" was first shown at the Strand Theatre, NeW York City, on August 12, 1918...
...Nominations for state-wide offices are to be made by a convention, local candidates to be chosen by the enrolled voters in each assembly district...
...The fight occurred when the minority group attempted a substitution of a platforms committee report headed by Will Mahoney...
...Congress received hundreds of letters protesting clauses in the Burke Bill which would pull out of employment and send to distant camps all men (between 21 and 45 years of age...
...The book will feature plete iconography of Griffith's films...
...Typical of the vague and Incompetent service of the Film Library was its failure to furnish Friday with the facts about Griffith and so prevent the publicizing of falsehoods such as those which have been cited...
...In the assumption of his new role, Oliver faces a hard fight against the Communists...
...Facilities for complete ground school instruction are immediately available at 435 colleges and universities and -in 76 communities (where last year's training was conducted on a non-college basis...
...Stalinites Smear Griffith to Discredit Anti-Dictator Films By SEYMOUR STERN EVER since the appearance, in November, 1939, of Lewis Jacobs' Stalinized "history," "The Rise of the American Film" (Harcourt, Brace), Communist Party-line film critics and • film historians in the United States Have been engaged in a more or less concerted effort to destroy the great creative tradition" of the American cinema...
...Sancta Simpilcitas...
...Science and literature in Soviet Rus...
...Is the Film Library seeking to persuade the public that after "Broken Blossoms" (1919), Griffith's films are "not worth seeing today...
...Between June 15 and September 1, 1940, the Civilian Pilot Training Program will give-primary training to 15,000 pilots...
...The new A.L.P...
...As many as nine hundred * automobiles have been counted at the meetings of the Denver branch...
...At present Germany produces 36,000 planes a month—six times that of this country...
...There are only brief references to if in "The Rise of the American Film" (pp...
...Since the exhibit is now scheduled to come off in the Fall, "Friday's" attack may reveal in a new light the broader objectives of Communist operations in this field...
...In Appleton, Wisconsin, the four-year-old Farmer-Labor and Progressive Federation voted to abandon the "farmer-labor" designation and to call itself the Progressive Party Federation...
...is < reorganising to be more closely integrated with the rest of the C.P...
...Last year he was vociferously "collective security...
...He believed passionately in liberal democracy, and he feared above everything the consequences of a German victory in western Europe...
...In all seriouinMii d* book, as a collection of popular essays, is as charming, clear Mt even fascinating in the scientific vistas and perspectives it 0JHW before the reader—as Jules Verne and H. G. Wells ever weee ft their topmost best...
...Another indication of the shifting realignment in Badger state politics was the endorsement of Robert M. LaFollette for re-election as Senator...
...For many years he was Research Director of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks...
...Jacobs admittedly newer saw the film, but this did not prevent him from writing "authoritatively" about it...
...Now we heave a sigh of relief...
...Little will be read about these efforts as the presidential strategists postpone the administration's defense program to avoid such moves from being exploited by Franklyn Waltman's G.O.P...
...Hearts of the World," a film on a larger scale, was one of the most successful efforts of Griffith's career...
...His early years were spent editing a Farmer-Labor paper in Minnesota...
...Griffith's sympathies had been -with the Allies from the start of the conflict, and he needed no urging to help their cause...
...During the fall these will be moved into actual flying schools and replaced by 15,000 others...
...ganda in the Soviet Union...
...This has-been approved by President gepsevelt...
...Hundreds of hooded Klansmen gather there vowing to Phil LaFollette who this week again became an important figure in Midwest politics at the convent/on of fhe Wisconsin Farmer-Labor Fed-oration• Farm Parties Shift From Isolationism Speeiai to The New Leader MADISON, Wis.— Significant shifts in Midwest farm-labor politics, many from strict isolation, took place last week at the conventions of the Wisconsin FarmerLabor Association...
...The exact contrary is true...
...The entire man-power of the "innocent" apparatus will be utilized...
...Much water has flown in the canal and more blood in Moscow River (incidentally, Yagoda's blood...
...who have not had the benefit of French prose and whom, the*»-fore, it is difficult to read unless armed with two pairs of «J* glasses...
...This was tiie work of the Civil Aeronautics Authority, which this week through Robert H. Hinckley, chairman, revealed plans for the primary training of 45,000 new pilots by July 1-, 1941...
...It was in this film $iat Griffith first showed the immense aerial and battle panoramas of modern warfare, anticipating those of "The Big Parade," "What Price Glory...
...ome 10,000 pilots were completely trained by June 30...
...state executive resigned as director of Labor's Nón-Partisan League in protest over Lewis' blast at President Roosevelt...
...But tte remedy which cured him and which he now offers to the world i priceless...
...Oliver New State Director (ffrooßs and Wtiim By Elias L. Tarfak They Do It Better in the U.S.SJL "f\NE;thing which I particularly liked about the Soviet Um« V' when I visited it was the almost complete absence of prop», ganda as compared with England...
...At these depots of the Civilian Training Program are more than 500 commercial aviation operators ready to teach...
...In six months, by January 1,1941, production capacity will Ibe about 1,250 planes a month, or 15,000 a year...
...Ster» «pent more than ti as a Hollywood scenario writer and in film production...
...The "Progressive Committee to Rebuld the A.L.P...
...TUM N*W LBADE» fe _ Snfcta* AiLSiJZ&'uSrtu vIT xxili -! A1**»«"1» «¦««£ EU OS Tarfak Yegeda, the Engineer ALL this, as the cup-ent saying goes, brings memories.- fie columnist thinks of the late twenties and early thirties, whig so many American and European scientists (professors, at' My rate) and intellectuals fell under the speH of the "only Sociafett country in -the world...
...In the disclosures the world learned of the sejri-tude of Russian artists and writers, of many scientists ud scholars either banished to Siberia for their heresies or compelled to leave their country and seek shelter and employment in the West...
...If this is what the Library has in mind, then Mr...
...Then they spoke and wrote of the *** lenge of Soviet Russia to America," of the superiority of Bi methods of education, even of the wonderful White Sea<i Canal bujlt by Yagoda, i.e., by the concentration camps prison« under Yagoda's paternal supervision...
...As a result, "America" is either bitterly condemned or contemptuously ignored by Stalinist critics...
...They are the only films of their kind so far made in this country, and as such they were clearly not intended to serve as meat for a Bolshevik commissars' holiday...
...It ran as & two-dollar attraction at the Forty-fourth Street Theatre in New York for 28 consecutive weeks, and until the war ended, enjoyed a proportionate success in the rest of the country...
...By September 1, 1941, the total will be approximately 1,700 a month, or about 20,000 a year...
...The convention also adopted a "compromise" plank on foregin affairs suggesting that "national defense may involve the granting of all bid short of war to main-lain defenses against aggression throughout the world...
...publicity machine...
...But unless Henry Ford and General Motors make good their boästs of producing 1,(700 planes a day, these pilots will be forced " to.stand in long queues even to ride in a plane...
...state committee passed a vote of thanks to the Millinery Workers Union for having permitted Mr...
...With all that, Professor Haldane remains a combination « remarkable scientist and political Gracie Allen...
...Campaign by lame duck Senator Burke of Nebraska to secure support for his military training bill further alienated public opinion...
...In a book daotd to popular science, he tells us that the capitalist system is b»i« in which we all agree with him...
...In 1924, Griffith produced the last and greatest of his Atlantic spectacles,—"America," a dramatic epic of the American Revolution...
...the André Gides have made their "retreat from Moscow," others halt "confessed...
...These works belong not to the Film Library, but to the American public...
...too), since the gelijn days of the honeymoon between Western intelligentsia and Üt then still unexecuted Bukharins and unincarcerated Radeks...
...The nomination of Bob, despite the fact that he is not a member, and the change of party name making it identical with the LaFollettes' trade-mark means the surer' control by the brothers over Badger state politics...
...In a series of important subtitles prefacing Part II, Griffith drew bitter and inescapable comparisons between the Reign of Terror of 1789 and the Bolshevist regime of modern Russia...
...It enjoyed regular nation-wide distribution through Paramount-Art-craft, but was withdrawn in November of the same year, when the Armistice lessened public interest in war films...
...e., post-World War) social and political ideas were presented on the screen...
...Toa*otiveJy HHed "«MFFITH: Master of tbe CI—ya," rt will present the most extensive study ye* made of both the profestiMta and the social philosophy of a film director...
Vol. 23 • July 1940 • No. 27
